Author's Note: I do not own Final Fantasy XIII or anything affiliated with it. The rights to it belong to their respective owners.

Ch. 26 Reunion

The five of us made it to a hallway, which beyond held a huge number of soldiers. "Let us through! Block our way, you die!" Snow yelled. Fang put her hands on her hips and asked "You trying to get them angry?" "Thought maybe they'd run. There's been enough blood spilt," Snow admitted. "You'd thought they'd run? Let me refresh your memory. These people think they're protecting people from l'Cie. The fal'Cie have them all brainwashed."

Snow pounded a fist against the wall. "Fal'Cie! I have had it! We cannot let this go on!" "Then let's get going!" I called. "Attention all crew: Code Green! Repeat: Code Green! Security forces stand by! Hostile forces on board! Code Green!" a screen announced. Ignoring it we charged forward, meeting a pair of PSICOM Infiltrators, with two PSICOM Huntresses and a Viking.

Snow and Fang broke off to deal with the Viking, while Lighting and Hope each took a PSICOM Huntress and I went after the Infiltrators. They each pointed their guns at me and fired, and I ducked to avoid the shots while stabbing Indomitus into the ground and sending a Thunder spell through it, the energy traveling through the floor and up their feet. They seized up and couldn't fire again, giving me the time to stab them both in the stomach and turn to see how the others were doing.

Lightning had finished off the Huntress she had targeting, while Hope was wearing down his and Fang and Snow wearing making progress against the Viking. As I watched Hope used Quake followed by Aerora and Blizzara. The earth from the first spell was tossed around by the second, and turned into razor-sharp shards of frozen earth from the third. The shards spun around the Huntress like a twister, and she had just enough time to say "Damn you!" before the shards finished her.

Hope then sent the twister full of shards after the Viking, and I nodded, impressed. "Very good, Hope. You've gotten stronger," I told him. He smiled at the compliment, and yelled "Snow, Fang, get back!" They did, and he sent the twister of ice shards to completely envelope the Viking. It gave a mechanized whir of frustration and swung its arm around, the end of it burning with flames. However, each time the Viking turned up the heat on its arm the chill from the twister would instantly cool it back down.

While it vainly tried to heat up the fire on its arm Lightning, Fang, Snow and I attacked the Viking, Hope keeping the tornado from fading. Eventually it grew tired of trying to heat up its arm and whirred in anger. It raised is arm above its head and was perfectly still, then a few seconds later it rushed forward, out of the tornado and at Hope, unleashing its Firestorm attack. A chain of small explosions occurred around Hope, knocking him off balance and into the air.

"Hope!" Lightning called. He hit the ground and slowly got back up, but without his focus on it the tornado of ice wobbled and faded. Before Hope had a chance to create another the Viking hit him again, and kept on him relentlessly. "I got ya kid!" Fang yelled, and she drove her spear into the Viking's side. It turned and swung at her to keep her back before swiftly turning back to Hope. "Snow, Fang, you guys try and get rid of that Viking. Light and I'll make sure that Hope stays up!"

They nodded and attacked the Viking while Lightning and I each sent a volley of Cure spells at Hope. Green light surrounded his body and the burn from the Firestorm faded, but the Viking kept on him still preventing him from attacking and forcing me and Light to send more Cure spells his way.

Then Snow used both Water and Aquastrike, the force from the water strong enough to knock the machine off-balance and make it tilt to the side. When it did Fang threw her spear at it, and that last push was enough to knock the mechanized monster over on its side. If the Viking was on its feet then it was a strong enough foe, but on its side all it could do was nothing. It kicked its feet around and waved its arm, but for all the good that did it might as well have done nothing.

I jumped up on its side and stabbed Indomitus into its exposed side. I pulled my sword back out, and the blade was slick with oil while sparks burst on the inside. While I kept attacking its side Fang, Snow and Hope further beat it down, until Lightning ended it by turning her blade into a gun and putting a single bullet in its head.

I jumped off the now dead Viking and we kept going onward, fighting through more waves of soldiers and mechanized monsters after that. After we made our way farther down the hall we heard another screen make another announcement. "Code Purple! I repeat: Code Purple! Security breach! All units on alert! Code Purple!" the screen announced. "All these colors. What's it mean?" Hope asked.

"It means we're doin' our job. Making a lot of PSICOM guys nervous," Fang told him. "Who are they fighting?" Hope continued. "Vanille," she replied. After that we continued through the halls until we reached an opening, and jumped through onto the weather deck. Snow looked up from where we came and said "Won't be going back that way." "We'll find another route," Lightning said. I pointed at some bridges farther along the deck. "Let's use those," I said.

They all nodded, but then Hope said "Have you noticed? The wind's dying down." Lightning blinked and turned, feeling it. "Yeah, it's stopping. And we're decelerating. Are they up to something?" "I don't know. I suppose it might be, you know- good luck?" Then holes slid open across the deck, and monster began to fly out. Fang said "That looks a lot more like bad luck." "You've got a point," he admitted. "Not to me. That? That we can do something about," Light said.

"Then let's get 'em!" I called. With that we ran forward. In one battle we were confronted by a total of half a dozen Deckdrones, and they reason we made it out was because Lighting summoned Odin to kill them all before they unleashed Electro Kick. Afterward we came across another Viking and a quartet of Vespid Soldiers.

Again each of us broke off to take our take an individual target, and they went down in a matter of minutes. We progressed farther across the deck, engaging in a number of additional battles, until we came near the edge of it, and a large yellow monster appeared; a Kalavinka Striker. "Oh, this is just lovely," I commented. "So Light, how do you figure this makes us lucky?" Fang asked. "Because once we kill it we're one step closer to Vanille. How's that?" she replied. "Well, when you put it that way!" Fang said, spinning her spear over her head.

I drew Indomitus and charged forward, just as the Striker flew low and swung its wings. The blow hit Snow and Hope and sent them back, while Lightning, Fang and I jumped up and out of the way. Fang began casting Slow and Curse, slowing down the monster and making it more vulnerable. Hope began casting buffs on everyone while Snow provoked it into attacking him, and Light and I began hitting it with our assault. I cast Libra and told everyone it was strong against physical attacks, and Lightning cast a series Ruin spells.

The Striker turned to her and was about to attack when I hit it with a pair of Blizzards, and it turned to me. It took a breath and opened its maws, breathing out a blast of Lightning. At the last second Snow used Provoke on the monster, and the bolt switch targets for him, the attacks hitting his Steelguard and dealing minimal damage. Then Fang yelled "No more nice Fang!" and cast Slow and Curse once more. Both spells took effect, and the monster roared from feeling its movements slowed.

By then Hope had finished buffing everyone up, and Snow dropped his Steelguard. He, along with Hope and I, began using spells to stack up the damage our hits would deal while Fang and Light kept it maintained with their attacks. The Curse spell combined with our attacks kept it from effectively retaliating, and then it began to glow gold, showing that it had been staggered.

Snow and I instantly switched to Ruin spells alongside Light and Fang; while Hope kept driving the damage capacity up with his elemental spells. Then Hope yelled "Deiru! Catch!" And he threw a blue orb at me. I caught it to see it was a ball of ice the size of basketball, with a fire in the center. The flames knocked around inside the container, ready to burst, and Hope said "Put that on its back! Trust me!" I did, and ran forward to jump onto the Striker's back.

I placed the sphere in between its wings and jumped off, the ice sticking to its skin. "Everyone get back!" Hope yelled. Without speaking we all did, and Hope raised his hands before clapping them together. The monster had enough time to wonder why we stopped attacking before the sphere on its back exploded. Fire and ice erupted outward in a detonation of burning heat, freezing wind, and blue with red light.

The monster fell onto the deck, its skin black from both the chill and heat, and slid off the deck. However, before we had time to celebrate Hope called "Another one!" and we looked to see that another Kalavinka Striker was indeed flying towards us. "One big fat stroke of luck after another. I'm so happy I could cry," Snow said sarcastically.

Then the wall behind us exploded, a hole appearing and both Sazh and Vanille jumping out of it. Fang's eyes widened, and she called "Vanille!" Vanille's eyes widened in surprise and joy, and she said "Fang!" The two of them ran up to each other, and Snow said "There you are." Sazh spread his arms and said "Miss me?" "Not you! The monster!" Snow called. Sazh turned around to look and said "What? Where?"

The Striker flew forward and hovered in front of us, but I knew we would defeat it. Especially with two more allies by our side. The monster flew up and began charging for its Hellstorm Bolt, so Snow switched to Sentinel while Sazh and Hope cast buffs on everyone, Vanille and fang casting debuffs on the monster. It fired its attacks and Snow, who was sent a few feet back by the force of the attack, electricity crackling though his hair and clothes.

Light and I sent a few Cure spells his way before we turned back to the monster and began attacking. Lighting kept attacking the Striker near its face, up close and personal, while I went for its wings. The monster roared it anger and snapped its jaws at Light, but she kept dodging out of the way. I stabbed Indomitus into its wings and pulled it sideways, tearing the sword through its right wing before taking it out. Blood the color of oil began to come from the wound, and with an injured wing the Striker had trouble staying in the air.

Then Vanille finished casting Deshell, Imperil and Poison and ran forward, casting her rod and wires extending from it. They tied around the Strikers injured wing, and she pulled, bringing the off-balance fiend to the ground. It roared and tried to get back up, but then Fang stabbed her spear through the wing and into the deck, keeping it pinned. While the two of them kept the monster down Snow pounded on it with its fist, Hope and I cast magic and both Lightning and Sazh fired bullets.

After a few minutes of this I was confident we won, put then the monster roared louder than ever before. It wrenched its body upward, pulling Fang's spear out of the ground and managing to launch itself upward. Fang held onto the spear and Vanille kept hold of her rod, the two of them flying around as the Striker spun up in the air. I was about to charge forward when Light yelled "Deiru, don't!" I looked at her and Snow said "We can't risk hitting Vanille and Fang!"

I grunted and lowered my sword. "So what do we do?" Hope asked. Then the monster fired another Hellstorm Bolt, barely missing me and Sazh. It fired bolt after bolt, leaving us unable to do anything but dodge while Fang and Vanille held on. Then I got an idea, and said "There's one projectile that would work!" "And what might that be?" Sazh asked.

I ran over to Snow and yelled "Throw me!" He blinked in surprise before nodding, grabbing my arm and spinning in a circle, using both his strength and the momentum to launch me upward. The Striker saw me and fired another bolt, and I held Indomitus over my head, the tip of it pointing at the fiend. My sword cut through the bolt of energy and I flew upward, stabbing into the monster's injured wing.

I twisted my sword and pulled the sound of tearing metal and flash filling my ears, until the monster's entire left wing tore off. All of us- Vanille, Fang, the monster and I- fell toward the ground, the three of us landing on our feet while the monster made a full-on crash. It flailed around in pain for a moment before both Lighting and Sazh shot it in the chest, the Kalavinka Striker going limp and sliding off the deck.

Once we had our breath back Fang said "Vanille!" She called "Fang!" and the two of them ran up to hug each other. I smiled at the happy scene, before Fang crouched down lifted the hem of Vanille's skirt. I raised an eyebrow and the other guys looked embarrassed, until I realized that Fang was looking at Vanille's brand. "You've still got time," she said, relieved. Vanille looked at her and said "Fang, there's- there's something I need to tell you."

Fang hugged her again and said "Making me worry like that… We'll talk later Missy." Sazh watched them, looking forlorn, until Snow asked "What's wrong?" "Uh, nothing. It's nothing. So, what's on the agenda?" he asked. Snow smirked and pumped his fists, saying "Toppling the Sanctum." "No, I mean really," Sazh said. "Really. That's what's we've got planned," I told him.

He looked at me, and Lighting said "They're serious. We're going to take down the Sanctum and give Cocoon back to the people. The fal'Cie have called the shots for long enough." "If we pull this off it'll be a miracle," Hope said. "Well then, it's a good thing Lady Luck's on our side," Fang told him. Then yet more aerial monsters flew by, and Sazh said "More of 'em?" "You know, this is really starting to get old," Snow said.

Fang and Vanille stepped forward, and Fang called "Check this out! A miracle- Gran Pulse style! Vanille, go fish!" "Got it!" she responded, and cast her rod. The wires from it flew forward to wrap around the wings of one of the monsters and Fang jumped forward. She brought her spear down on it, and it flailed on the ground before it settled down. "That's a good girl," Fang told it. "All right!" Vanille turned to us and said "Let's get on!"

We all got on the monster's back, and Fang removed her spear. The monster instantly shot up into the air, with Sazh having not completely gotten on. Her held on to its back while I laughed from the feeling of freedom flying this way had. I could definitely see the attraction this kind of travel would have for people on Pulse, where the skies weren't inside a cocoon and were endless to explore. "Believe in Lady Luck now?" Fang asked.

I nodded while Sazh said "Yeah, Lady Bad Luck!" Snow pumped his fists together and said "Time to Purge a Primarch!" "You got it!" Fang yelled, and tapped the monster on its head. It let out a stream of electricity that blasted a hole in the Palamecia, and we all jumped through. Once we had successfully landed and stood, Lightning pointed to a set of doors at the end of the hall. "Dysley's down there," she told us.

Fang looked at Vanille and said "We're still gonna have our talk. But let's survive this first, yeah?" Vanille nodded and said "Right." I took a deep breath and pulled Indomitus back off my back, the comfortable feel of it in my hands soothing me.

Our greatest fight yet was about to begin.

xxx

Well, now the group is finally whole once more, and next chapter is one of my favorite parts of the game! How will the group deal with the truth of Barthandelus? Who is this mysterious prisoner? And what will occur? Stay tuned to find out!

Please review! If you flame me Liam Neeson will look for you, he will find you, and he will kill you. (I'm just kidding… or am I?)